The Troops at First Fight Resolutely. 
  Bravery of the Officers in Command.

At first the army as a whole fought firmly; indeed there was no choice, for it was ringed by a wall of flame.  The officers behaved very well, cheering and encouraging their men; but they were the special targets of the Indians, and fell rapidly.  St. Clair and Butler by their cool fearlessness in the hour of extreme peril made some amends for their shortcomings as commanders.  They walked up and down the lines from flank to flank, passing and repassing one another; for the two lines of battle were facing outward, and each general was busy trying to keep his wing from falling back.  St. Clair’s clothes were pierced by eight bullets, but he was himself untouched.  He wore a blanket coat with a hood; he had a long queue, and his thick gray hair flowed from under his three-cornered hat; a lock of his hair was carried off by a bullet. [Footnote:  McBride’s “Pioneer Biography,” I., 165.  Narrative of Thomas Irwin, a packer, who was in the fight.  There are of course discrepancies between the various accounts; in the confusion of such a battle even the most honest eye-witnesses could not see all things alike.] Several times he headed the charges, sword in hand.  General Butler had his arm broken early in the fight, but he continued to walk to and fro along the line, his coat off and the wounded arm in a sling.  Another bullet struck him in the side, inflicting a mortal wound; and he was carried to the middle of the camp, where he sat propped up by knapsacks.  Men and horses were falling around him at every moment.  St. Clair sent an aide, Lieutenant Ebenezer Denny, to ask how he was; he displayed no anxiety, and answered that he felt well.  While speaking, a young cadet, who stood nearby, was hit on the kneecap by a spent ball, and at the shock cried aloud; whereat the General laughed so that his wounded side shook.  The aide left him; and there is no further certain record of his fate except that he was slain; but it is said that in one of the Indian rushes a warrior bounded towards him and sunk the tomahawk in his brain before any one could interfere.

  The Indians Capture the Artillery. 
  Charges and Counter-Charges.

Instead of being awed by the bellowing artillery, the Indians made the gunners a special object of attack.  Man after man was picked off, until every officer was killed but one, who was wounded; and most of the privates also were slain or disabled.  The artillery was thus almost silenced, and the Indians, emboldened by success, swarmed forward and seized the guns, while at the same time a part of the left wing of the army began to shrink back.  But the Indians were now on comparatively open ground, where the regulars could see them and get at them; and under St. Clair’s own leadership the troops rushed fiercely at the savages, with fixed bayonets, and drove them back to cover.  By this time the confusion and disorder were great;